Gun rack



R. V. HART Nov. 11, 1969 GUN RACK Filed Aug. 50, 1967 United StatesPatent Office 3,477,587 Patented Nov. 1l, 1969 U.S. Cl. 211-64 5 ClaimsABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A gun rack into which a gun, such as a rie orshotgun, may be latched so as to hold the gun in a positive fashionregardless of the position of the rack, which has la movable latch orlink for holding the gun, and which is almost entirely, or entirely,including the movable latch or link, encased in at least a singlehomogeneous layer of a soft elastomer.

BACKGROUND oF THE INVENTION Field of the invention The invention isdirected to a gun rack which will hold a gun positively without chanceof dislodgment, and which is particularly useful for mounting on theunderside of motor vehicle trunk lids and in other locations subject tomovement of a swinging nature. The rack includes moving parts and isentirely, or almost entirely, including the moving parts, encased in atleast a single homogeneous layer of a soft elastomer.

Description of the prior art Previously known gun racks were of thebracket or clip type, even when intended for use in moving vehicles, andfailed to hold a gun positively against accidental dislodgement. Thus,the previously known racks when used, for instance in a Jeep typevehicle in rough terrain, did not necessarily always hold'the gun inplace. Further, the earlier type racks would not always performsatisfactorily when used on the underside of a trunk lid of a vehiclewhere the rack is substantially inverted when the lid is closed. The gunrack of the present invention overcomes all of these problems.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention comprises a gun rack formed of abracket adapted to be mounted -on movable portions of a motor vehiclecarrying a spaced, parallel flexible arm or bar and a pivotally mountedlatch or link adapted to swing away from the arm so that a gun may beplaced between the bracket and the arm, and to be swung back over thearm to lat-ch the gun in the rack, the entire rack and latch or link,with the possible exception of the extremities of the bracket, beingentirely encased in at least a single homogeneous layer of a softelastomer. Normally, the brackets are used in pairs but could be usedsingly to hold a handgun.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a front, elevational view ofa pair of the gun racks constructed in accordance with this invention,showing in dotted lines a gun case mounted therein,

FIG. 2 is a side, elevational view, partly in section, of the gun rack,the open position of the parts of the rack being shown in dotted lines,

FIG. 3 is lan enlarged, front, elevational view of the gun rack,

FIG. 4 is a further-enlarged, horizontal, cross-sectional view taken onthe line 4-4 of FIG. 2,

FIG. 5 is a rear, perspective view of the gun rack in its open positionwith the elastomer coating deleted, and

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary, vertical view, partly in elevation and partlyin section, showing a modification of the invention in which theextremities of the upper and lower offset portions of the bracket arenot encased in the elastomer. l

A construction designed to carry out the invention will be hereinafterdescribed, together with other features of the invention.

The invention will be more readily understood from a reading of thefollowing specification and by reference to the accompanying drawing,wherein examples of the invention are shown.

DESCRIPTION OF'THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In the drawing, the numeral 10designates generally a gun rack constructed in accordance with thisinvention. Normally, the racks are used in pairs, as shown at 11 and 12in FIG. 1, and are mounted in spaced, parallel relationship to hold anelongate gun such as a riiie or shotgun in or out of a conventionalguncase 13. A single rack could be used, however, to hold a handgun,dependent on the dimensions of the rack, but such a. use would beunusual and possibly not advisable except under particularcircumstances.

The gun rack includes a rigid, elongate bracket 14 formed of metal orsome other suitable strong, rigid material. At its upper end the bracketis offset at an angle rearwardly, as shown at 15, and then verticallyupwardly, parallel to the main body of the bracket, to form an upperextremity 16 of the bracket. At its lower end the bracket is also offsetrearwardly at right angles to form a short horizontal leg 17 and thenbent downwardly at right angles to form a depending lower extremity 18of the bracket vertically alined with the upper extremity 16. Both theextremities 16 and 18 have transverse openings 19 for receiving suitablefasteners, such as screws or bolts, for attaching the bracket to anydesired surface 20 with the main portion of the bracket parallel to butspaced from such surface. Of course, the upper and lower ends of thebracket need not be offset to the same degree and the bracket, whenmounted, need not be parallel to the surface 20.

An L-shaped arm 21 formed of a fiexible, springlike material such assteel or some other suitable material has its shorter, horizontal leg 22extending beneath the leg 17 of the bracket and suitable secured theretoas by the rivet 23, the longer leg 24 of the arm 21 curving upwardly andvertically from the shorter leg 22 in substantial parallelisrn to thebracket 14. At its upperI extremity 25 the leg 24 is curved arcuatelyoutwardly from the bracket to form a link receiving concavity 26.

A substantially rectangular link 27, Wider than th arm 21, vis pivotallymounted or connected to the rear- Ward face of the bracket 14immediately beneath the upper angular offset 15 by a clip 28 havingU-shaped central section 29 which receives the link 27 and is secured tothe rearward face of the bracket by any suitable means Such as therivets 30, the forward portions 31 of which are beveled as to be flushwith the surface of the bracket. As shown in FIG. 3, when the link 27 isswiveled upwardly, as shown in dotted lines at 31, to release the arm21, the latter is inclined slightly forwardly from the bracket as shownin dotted lines at 32. Thus, a gun is readily received between the arm21 and the bracket 14. After the gun has been positioned, the arm 21 ismanually pressed rearwardly toward the bracket 14, the flexibility ofthe arm 21 permitting it to conform to the shape and size of the gun.The link 27 is then swung downwardly over the upper end of the arm 21 tobe received in the concavity 26 and thereby lock the gun in the rack.Due to the resiliency of the arm 21, the concavity 26 tends to moveforwardly from the bracket 14 and thus holds the link securely in theconcavity as shown in solid lines in FIG. 3.

After the complete rack has been assembled, it is suitably coated orencased in any suitable manner, as by spraying or dipping, in a suitablesoft elastomer such as rubber, synthetic rubber, polyvinyl chloride, orany of the other well-known synthetic resins which are moderately softand flexible yet capable of forming a relatively thick coating over theentire gun rack. Desirably the gun rack is so coated in its openposition, as shown in FIG. so as to form the relatively thickhomogeneous layer 33 which encases the entire rack, including the clip28 and link 27. The resiliency and ilexibility of the coating 33 will,however, permit the movement of the arm 21 and the vertical swinging ofthe link 27.

In the alternative, the entire gun rack with the exception of the upperand lower extremities 16 and 18 may be so coated or encased, as shown inFIG. 6.

The coating 33 may be applied in a single layer or may be built up inseveral layers being of such a nature as to protect the surfaces of thegun mounted in the rack against scratching or marring and adequatelyflexible and resilient to permit the necessary movement of the severalparts of the rack. Thus, although the entire rack, or almost the entirerack, is encased in at least a single homogeneous layer, the variousparts thereof are permitted to move as needed without injury to orrupture of the encasing elastomer.

The link 27 is normally horizontal, as shown in FIG. 5 so that theencasing coating 33 is normally under very little, or no, stress orstrain.

This novel gun rack permits it to be mounted in any desired location andis satisfactory for mounting in vehicles subjected to much bouncing ortilting, as, for instance, a vehicle used for transversing rough andhilly terrain, and is also extremely useful for mounting on moving partsof a motor vehicle such as a door or other portion. The rack isparticularly useful for mounting on the underside of a trunk lid of avehicle since the lid may be swung upwardly, the guns received andlatched in their sets of racks after which the trunk lid may be closed,which substantially inverts the rack, and yet the gun will be heldsecurely in position by the engagement by the arm 21 and the link 27.The gun is readily removed at any time by pressing the arm 21 inwardlyand swinging the link 27 upwardly so that the rack is opened and the gunremoved.

The gun cannot become dislodged from the rack regardless of theorientation or the position the rack may assume since the gun is rmlyheld against movement in any and all directions.

The foregoing description of the invention is explanatory thereof andvarious changes in the size, shape and materials, as Well as in thedetails of the illustrated construction may be made, without departingfrom the spirit of the invention.

I claim:

1. A gun rack especially adapted for mounting on movable portions of amotor vehicle such as on the underside of a trunk lid including anelongate bracket rearwardly offset at its upper and lower ends forsecuring to a portion of a motor vehicle body,

the offset lower end of the bracket including a short leg extendingtransversely between and connecting said offset lower end to saidbracket,

an L-shaped exible arm having its shorter leg secured to the shorttransverse leg of the offset lower end of the bracket and projectingforwardly therefrom and its longer leg extending upwardly in spacedsubstantial parallelism to said bracket,

the upper extremity of the longer leg being deformed outwardly from thebracket, and a link wider than the arm pivotally connected to thebracket below the offset upper end of said bracket,

the link being swingable upwardly to admit a gun between the bracket andthe arm and swingable downwardly over the upper end of the arm to connethe gun between said bracket and the arm regardless of the orientationof the rack,

the entire rack, including the link but not necessarily including theextremities of the olset portions of the bracket, being encased in atleast a single homogeneous layer of a soft elastomer.

2. A gun rack as set forth in claim 1 wherein the entire rack isenclosed in the elastomer.

3. A gun rack as set forth in claim 1 wherein the link is pivotallysecured to the rearward side of the bracket by a U-shaped clip carriedby the bracket, the clip being encased in the elastomer.

4. A gun rack as set forth in claim 1 wherein the upper extremity of thelonger leg of the arm is curved arcuately outwardly from the bracket andadapted to be engaged by the clip.

5. A gun rack as set forth in claim 1 wherein the longer leg of the armterminates at about the lower end of the offset upper end of thebracket.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,632,619 3/1953 Wilson 248-3163,294,247 12/ 1967 Norrington 211-64 3,326,385 6/1967 Pinkerton 21164 XFOREIGN PATENTS 591,321 7/1925 France.

CHANCELLOR E. HARRIS, Primary Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 248-201

